High-Performance Research Storage Systems Upgraded, Doubling Available Usable Storage from 3PB to 6PB
The university’s Discovery Cluster high-performance research storage systems, located at the Massachusetts Green High Performance Computing Center (MGHPCC), have been expanded in capacity, and updated to increase system performance. These updates enable the more than 6,000 research faculty and students throughout the global university network who use MGHPCC to work with larger data sets while reducing the amount of time they need to run simulations. MGHPCC is an intercollegiate high-performance computing facility located in Holyoke, Massachusetts, supported as a joint venture of Boston University, Harvard, MIT, Northeastern, and the University of Massachusetts system.
Migration of Mills Housing Data Service to Northeastern Enables Support for Enrollment Growth
As part of ongoing work to support further integration of the Oakland campus with the global campus system, Northeastern IT teams in Oakland and Boston collaborated to migrate the legacy Mills housing data from a third-party vendor to Northeastern’s system. This transition provides Northeastern’s enterprise systems and housing teams with full control of this service, further enabling the university to move quickly as it coordinates enrollment growth.
Mills College Email Transition Allows Better Communication and Collaboration with Rest of University
The Mills email transition was completed when the final step of moving the @mills.edu mail domain to @northeastern.edu was done on January 31. Since the merger was finalized last summer, data from no fewer than 833 @mills.edu individual and shared Gmail accounts were migrated to Northeastern M365 accounts, while continuing to route all mail sent to those addresses to their new @northeastern.edu mailboxes. As a result, legacy Mills College employees and students are now fully integrated with Northeastern’s unified communication and collaboration platforms, allowing for more seamless messaging, meeting, and file-sharing with members of the university community around the global campus network.
New Security Operations Center (SOC) Will Address Global Security Threats 24/7/365
ITS is moving forward with a Microsoft partner to help the university provide security responses across all global campuses on a 24/7/365 basis. Cyberattacks continue to increase around the world, making it more important than ever for Northeastern to ensure that its services, data, and people are protected around the clock. As Northeastern continues to expand globally, utilizing an outsourced security operations center will help the institution scale its security program. As a result, the university can continue to repel attackers and help keep the community safe from cyber threats.
Student Hub Update Enhances Experience for Admitted Students
The latest update to the Student Hub moves up the date by which admitted student data is brought into in the Hub. As a result, admitted students will now have earlier and expanded access to useful information and resources, beginning as soon as this data becomes available in related systems of record. Previously, admitted students did not receive the full Student Hub experience until the week before they started classes. Admitted students’ basic data, like their college and major, will now be displayed on the Me profile and searchable on the Discover page to foster connections, and the students will also be able to view their course registrations, billing statements, and more, directly through the Hub and well in advance of the start of classes. While improving the experience for admitted students, it is also expected this update will reduce the amount of support calls made to the university ahead of each new academic semester.
Application Inventory Kicked-Off to Assess and Optimize the University’s Portfolio of Digital Tools and Systems
As follow-up to a 2019 assessment, the university has engaged Gartner, a leading global technology research and consulting firm, to refresh and expand the institution’s digital application assessment and roadmap. The effort will help Northeastern better manage risk while enabling improved prioritization and investment across the global university. Technical staff and business partners and leadership throughout the university will be included in the assessment process through surveys, interviews, and workshops.
Advancing the Conversation about the Opportunities and Challenges of AI in Education
Academic Technologies has been working with the Center for Advancing Teaching and Learning with Research to discuss and explore the recent technological advancements in generative AI, such as ChatGPT, and their impacts on education. Focus has been not just on the potential threats of this technology, but also the opportunities for providing a robot-proof education. Teams from Academic Technologies, CATLR, and other areas around the university co-wrote a whitepaper and presented in an educator exchange, “The Landscape of AI and ChatGPT: What is it and how can we work with it?” on Feb. 13. AT and CATLR will continue to support broad discussions about this new technology and create resources that help faculty to re-think assignment design to support more authentic learning and preparation for their future careers.